December 2017 Prime Picks
Biography & Autobiography
Diario
de Oxaca
Peter Kuper
PM Press
9781629634418
$24.95
www.pmpress.org
It's difficult to easily categorize Diario de Oxaca: A Sketchbook Journal of Two Years in Mexico. Although it's featured here in our biography section, it also holds important social and political history and messages about Mexico, adds photos and sketches to illustrate its story of a teacher's strike and a seven-month siege in Oaxaca, Mexico, and is a powerful cultural survey that should be on the reading list of anyone interested in regional Mexican history.
Cartoonist Peter Kuper and his wife and daughter moved to Oaxaca in 2006 and planned a quiet year enjoying another culture and getting away from the Bush years in the U.S.
What they received was far more than they'd bargained for: an adventure that landed them in the middle of a powerful political struggle that was to include strikes, government troops and killings, and a confrontation that threatened everything.
Anyone interested in a blend of travelogue, cultural and political inspection, and social revolution will find Diario de Oxaca a memorable, involving story.
Draft
Animals
Phil Gaimon
Penguin Books
9780143131243 $17.00
www.penguin.com
Draft Animals: Living the Pro Cycling Dream (Once in a While) follows up on the author's Pro Cycling on $10 A Day, and is recommended for cycling enthusiasts and autobiography readers alike as it follows Phil Gaimon's dreams of becoming a pro cyclist.
It would seem unlikely that one immersed in computer games would begin bike riding while on a weight loss program, only to discover in it an ambition to become a professional athlete.
Phil Gaimon's ability to move into this arena and to enter the world of professional cycling as a novice, there to ride to victory, creates an engrossing story of not just bike racing (which would have reached a much more limited sports-oriented audience), but of fulfilling dreams, refining ambitions, and accepting the unusual paths they lead to.
The result is a memoir that will reach beyond sports or cycling readers to attract a wide audience.
Raising
Trump
Ivana Trump
Gallery Books
9781501177286
$26.99
www.simonandschuster.com
Raising Trump provides a mother's intriguing assessment of her life and how she raised her three children, but it's as much a review of the kinds of lessons she sought to install in all her children as it is a survey of Donald Trump's family's life.
Ivana's former husband and her other children have been pushed into the limelight since Donald Trump's election, but this focus on how Ivana Trump raised her children and the kinds of values she worked to install in them offers a warm account that is as much about family relationships and values as it is about raising a family that's in the political limelight.
The result is an intriguing look beyond the mask of a private family that's long been in the public limelight.
Voice
Lessons
Cara Mentzel
St. Martin's Press
9781250105240
$27.99
www.stmartins.com
Voice Lessons: A Sister's Story tells how author Cara Mentzel grew up in her older sister's shadow, always watching her sister from afar and basking in the limelight of her success.
As she watched Idina Menzel become a Tony Award-winning singer who received top Broadway acclaim and who has performed for the President and at the Academy Awards, she learned to appreciate and foster her own life and voice and a relationship with a sister who appeared larger than life to most, but who ultimately was her big sister.
Family photos, insights about changing family relationships, and big nights and successes for her sister Dee make for an engrossing story not just because one of the sisters is famous; but because both were successful in their own right.
Any reader interested in sibling relationships and evolution in general and Idina Menzel's life in particular will appreciate this lively survey.
Woody
Guthrie's Modern World Blues
Will Kaufman
University of Oklahoma Press
9780806157610 $32.95
www.oupress.com
Woody Guthrie's Modern World Blues joins other accounts of the folk musician, but expands the information about his talents and life, considering his artistic efforts as a painter and sculptor also involved in issues of his times.
Guthrie spent many years in Los Angeles and New York: years that influenced his perspective and life as much as his rural Oklahoma foundations. Many won't know of his long-time involvement in film and recording efforts, or of his other artistic inclinations, so this account fills in many blanks.
That's why Woody Guthrie's Modern World Blues is so essential to any collection strong in Guthrie's life: it uses previously unpublished archival resources to bring together the extent of Guthrie's involvement in the arts beyond his musical career, and is essential reading for any who believe they know all about Woody Guthrie from music-oriented biographies.
The
Culinary Corner
Authentico
Rolando Beramendi
St. Martins Press
9781250124975 $35.00
www.stmartins.com
Authentico: Cooking Italian the Authentic Way comes from an importer of Italian foods and a culinary teacher, and reaches beyond pasta to consider Italy's many different classic dishes.
With an eye to researching, recreating, and presenting authentic traditional dishes that are not adaptations, Beramendi provides over a hundred recipes illustrated with color photos and filled with ideas not to be found in many other Italian cookbooks.
From a Polenta Gratin and traditional Kale Custards with Cannelloni Cream to Swordfish Torte, these dishes demonstrate the extent of Italian fare, which goes far beyond the usual pasta emphasis.
The
Edgy Veg
Candice Hutchings
Robert Rose
9780778805816
$27.95
www.robertrose.ca
The Edgy Veg: 138 Carnivore-Approved Vegan Recipes pairs the ideal of comfort foods with the traditions of vegan cookery in a manner that will attract families who want vegan fare and traditional concepts of comfort cooking.
Candice Hutchings decided to 'veganize' her childhood favorites - including fast foods. Therefore, she developed vegan alternatives to Lox and Cream Cheese Bagels, General Tso's Chicken, a French dip American sandwich, Pesto Pizza, and much more.
The result uses vegan-friendly substitutes such as seitan chicken and natural ingredients such as almond milk to produce fare that not only looks inviting, but is filled with flavor.
The result will appeal to vegan and carnivore eaters alike.
Grand
Central Life & Style
www.grandcentrallifeandstyle.
Two outstanding new recipe collections are highly recommended picks for cooks looking for something different both in recipes and approaches to cooking.
Gail Simmons works with Mindy Fox in Bringing It Home: Favorite Recipes from a Life of Adventurous Eating (9781455542208, $30.00), and comes from a trained food writer and culinary expert who shares her food adventures from her travels in a blend of memoir and recipe collection.
Simmons tried different dishes, kept notes about them, and here pairs these experiences with an eye to making these foods accessible to average American home cooks; which means few specialized ingredients and a focus on accessible goods and easy recipes.
Cooks will thus find appealing dishes, from a Québécois Pork & Bean Stew from Canada to Jamaican-inspired Jerk Shrimp Rolls or Spanish Lamb Chops a la Parilla with Roasted Grapes & Sweet Onions. The full-page color photos liberally peppered throughout make great side dishes to a winning collection.
Gabi Moskowitz & Miranda Berman's Hot Mess Kitchen: Recipes for Your Delicious Disastrous Life (9781455596508, $28.00) adopts an unusual perspective about its audience as it provides a cookbook for a generation that's never been interested in cooking before; many of whom likely know next to nothing about culinary matters.
Recipes offer a whimsical collection of titles that relate to life's crises and perspectives while making social and literary allusions which are hilarious and pointed, as in A Pad (Thai) of One's Own or Dirty Girl Martini. Aside from the fun recipe titles, candid assessments of prep techniques, kitchen challenges, and personal life changes blends with a combination memoir and cookbook that millennials in particular will find accessible and satisfyingly different.
Lidia's
Celebrate Like an Italian
Lidia Matticchio Bastianich and Tanya Bastianich Manuali
Knopf
9780385349482
$35.00
www.aaknopf.com
At first glance, one might wonder at the need for another Italian cookbook: the market seems more than saturated with Italian cookbooks that range from professional chef productions to home cooking.
But Lidia's Celebrate Like an Italian offers something different: a collection of Italian standard party fare recipes that offer over two hundred foolproof dishes; and it spices this approach with dishes that the author herself chooses when she's entertaining.
Tips assuring success accompany such creations as Herb Frittata Roll-Ups, which may be made a few hours ahead; or Monkfish Meatballs in Tomato Sauce, where the author advises doing a 'dry run' to test the dish's seasoning before it's produced for company.
From Italian-style picnic fare to dishes that originated in her restaurant, Lida's Kansas City, favorite menu and personal offerings blend with a selection of color photos throughout in a wide variety of foods that have their roots in Italy, but contain world influences.
Gift Books
The
Authorized Roy Orbison
Roy Jr., Wesley, & Alex Orbison with Jeff Slate
Center Street
9781478976547
$30.00
www.centerstreet.com
The Authorized Roy Orbison contrasts Orbison's success as a musician with his personal life and evolution, and is a 'must' for any Orbison fan who has enjoyed other books about his career but seeks to fill in the blanks between his music and his life.
It surveys the highs and lows of decades of his life up to the time he passed away at age 52, and comes from Roy's three sons, who decided to publish this book to tell the true story of the Orbison legend and its realities.
Pair this with an oversized presentation that includes many rare black and white and color photos throughout and an attention to music producer politics and studio recording moves for a powerful examination that is a 'must' for any definitive music collection covering Orbison's life, and for any fan who can't get enough and who wants a different perspective of his life and times.
The
Essential Marilyn Monroe by Milton H. Greene: Milton H. Greene: 50
Sessions
Joshua Greene
ACC Editions
9781851499673
$65.00
www.accartbooks.com
Despite the fact that hundreds of visual books have been produced about Marilyn Monroe, it's surprising to note that The Essential Marilyn Monroe by Milton H. Greene: Milton H. Greene: 50 Sessions contains well over a hundred images new to publication, gleaned from a period of time when Monroe's career was at its apex.
These were images taken by Milton H. Greene and restored by his son, author Joshua Green, for this book; and thus are not products that have seen wide reproduction elsewhere, but represent aspects of Monroe even her most avid fans may not have seen before.
Fashion photographer Greene met Monroe in 1953 while on a shoot and the two became friends, then business partners, when they created Marilyn Monroe Productions Inc. Their friendship led to a personal and working relationship that produced several films and over 5,000 photos capturing Monroe's iconic beauty.
These were images Milton H. Greene believed were doomed to succumb to deterioration ... and maybe they would have, were it not for the efforts and restoration achievement of his son Joshua. His polished results are featured here in a gorgeous oversized, weighty compendium highly recommended as a foundation acquisition for any collection serious about Marilyn Monroe in general and photographic achievement and history in particular.
The
Good Fight
Rick Smolan and Jennifer Erwitt
Aao/Sterling, Distributors
9781454927341
$35.00
www.AgainstAllOddsProductions.
The Good Fight is an oversized, winning discussion of America's ongoing struggle for human rights, and comes from two New York Times best-selling authors who cover both injustice struggles and successes against prejudice by minority communities in this country.
The story receives visual reinforcement by the world's leading photographers from the last century, who contribute nearly two hundred photos to accompany over a dozen essays and a smartphone app to bring to life the struggles of different communities and peoples.
Perhaps the most significant contribution of this volume lies in its retrospective of victories against hatred in this country and its powerful chronicles of various forms of injustice in this country and how individuals and groups battled it.
From how Star Trek actor George Takei, the grandson of immigrants, became immersed in the Japanese concentration camp experience and acknowledged both his heroes and how prejudice was fought to how Kamala Harris, the daughter of an Indian immigrant mother and a Jamaican American father, moved from becoming a career prosecutor to winning her bid for U.S. Senate, The Good Fight ties individual experience with broader portraits of prejudice and survival in America and is a powerful recommendation not just for social issues and civil rights collections, but for gift-giving and coffee table display.
A
History of Children's Books in 100 Books
Roderick Cave and Sara Ayad
Firefly Books
9781770859579
$29.95
www.fireflybooks.com
A History of Children's Books in 100 Books closely examines the development of the children's book genre from early folk stories such as Aesop's Fables to modern times with the Harry Potter series; but the main difference between this consideration and similar-sounding histories lies in its fun, detailed examination of children's book design, production, and marketing.
Another difference lies in its lovely, oversized illustrations of its history, which will attract general readers as well as those with a prior affection for the genre.
Articles cover a range of topics, from how publishing fairy tales became a commercial venture in Victorian times to how different nations adopted the children's literature of other countries.
The result is a warmly engrossing collection of intriguing discussions that receive lovely illustrative embellishment and interesting debates.
The
Jacksons: Legacy
Jackie, Tito, and Marlon, with Fred Bronson
Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers
9780316473
$29.99
www.blackdogandlevelthal.com
Plenty of books have appeared about various members of the Jackson family both individually and as a singing group; but The Jacksons: Legacy represents something different: a collection of largely untold memories by surviving Jackson brothers who started as the Jackson 5 singing group and later became The Jacksons.
This is the first official review of the family's life and careers and pairs over a thousand new photos with twelve days of interviews with Jackie, Tito and Marlon.
Family stories blend with insights into their evolution to provide a powerful combination of family portrait and music insights. Full-page and large-size color and black and white photos of the group and individual family members accompany quotes that capture their experience, making for a powerful survey that no Jackson fan will want to miss.
Life
at the Top
Kirk Henckels and Anne Walker
Vendome Press
9780865653405
$75.00
www.vendomepress.com
Life at the Top: New York's Most Exceptional Apartment Buildings provides an oversized presentation filled with lavish color photos by Michel Arnaud and contrasts well with other New York architectural surveys by limiting its subject to luxury apartments in the City.
Definitions of luxurious styles changed between 1900 and modern times, as did apartment building architectural choices. What was considered exceptional in 1900 was far different decades later as lavish embellishments moved from art deco styles to glass masterpieces.
Life at the Top gathers a representative sampling of under twenty iconic apartment structures, is written by authors with real estate and architectural backgrounds, and pairs a coffee table book with an eye-catching format with the kind of detail that will appeal to architectural historians, New York City enthusiasts, and interior designers alike.
Arts collections as well as any with a special interest in New York City's evolution will find Life at the Top a powerful collection.
My
Jerusalem: The Eternal City
Ilan Greenfield, Editor
Gefen Publishing House
9789652299079
$50.00
www.gefenpublishing.com
My Jerusalem: The Eternal City represents a solid and exciting achievement, and editor and publisher Ilan Greenfield views it as "the most important and monumental book that I have published in my 36 years of publishing." Quite a statement; but readers will quickly discover why this volume is so exceptional.
Essays that consider Jerusalem's political, religious, and social importance provide different stories about the city along with a range of perspectives that invite readers to reconsider what they know about Jerusalem's meaning.
The authors of these essays range from politicians and scholars to artists and world leaders from Israel and the U.S., many renowned experts in their field, and participants in national programs or educational institutions.
Both Jewish and non-Jewish writers are included.
Pair these with gorgeous color photos by Ziv Koren for a lovely, oversized coffee table book worthy of gift-giving and repeat consultation.
The Arts
Death:
A Graveside Companion
Joanna Ebenstein, Editor
Thames & Hudson
9780500519716 $40.00
www.thamesandhudsonusa.com
Death: A Graveside Companion sounds like it belongs more in a horror literature or science collection than in an arts library; but it features the Richard Harris Art Collection and provides a unique blend of art history in its survey about the images, myths, and realities of death and afterlife, and so is highly recommended for arts holdings, as well.
Seven themed chapters examine art, artifacts, and images from around the world through the years, pairing these images with nineteen essays from scholars in a multidisciplinary approach that may make Death: A Graveside Companion hard to easily categorize, but appealing to many different audiences.
Featuring much new material that hasn't appeared in other books, this treatment is especially recommended for arts and social history holdings.
The
Making of Three Gardens
Jorge Sánchez
Merrell
9781858946658
$70.00
www.merrellpublishers.com
The Making of Three Gardens provides landscape architects with a narrow focus on three gardens designed by SMI Landscape Architecture, but though its content would seem limited at first glance, it actually offers landscape designers and architects invaluable information about the process and special challenges involved in garden design.
The three private gardens selected for contrast include two in Florida and one in Scarsdale, New York. Each project receives an in-depth coverage that includes the special conditions of and decisions affecting each; principal partner Jorge Sánchez's unique relationships to the projects, designers, and landowners; and how the collaborative processes involved numerous design experts.
Readers who appreciate landscape architecture in general, garden design details, or horticultural histories will find The Making of Three Gardens offers many insights into the overall process which will prove key to understanding how a superior garden is crafted.
History Matters
Both
Sides of the Bullpen
Robert S. McPherson
University of Oklahoma Press
9780806157450
$34.95
www.oupress.com
Both Sides of the Bullpen: Navajo Trade and Posts examines the southwestern trading posts that Navajo and Ute families used to barter for material goods between 1880 and 1940, considering how physical goods and cultural knowledge met in the "bullpens" of these posts.
The oral histories of Native peoples and traders alike were gathered over thirty years of the author's research, and considers interactions on both sides as traders handled Navajo cultural challenges and moved from trading goods to gift giving, providing health and burial services, and even tailoring a credit system with the Navajo calendar in mind.
These trading posts ultimately came to follow and represent Navajo practices; but have been little considered until now.
Both Sides of the Bullpen deserves a place in Native American and American Southwest history collections alike.
The
Great Halifax Explosion
John U. Bacon
William Morrow
97800626666536
$29.99
www.harpercollins.com
The events of a powerful explosion in Canada which blew down a city and served as one of the most destructive events of World War I might be lost to popular attention were it not for the publication of The Great Halifax Explosion: A World War I Story of Treachery, Tragedy, and Extraordinary Heroism, a wide-ranging history that shouldn't be missed.
The explosion represented the largest man-made explosion before the atomic bomb, but this book is not only the most definitive history of events surrounding this, but one of the only in-depth accounts to consider the political, social, and human effects of the explosion.
Why should this event hold ongoing importance today? Because it documents a new relationship between two nations, the lasting political ramifications of the disaster, and the individuals who responded to a catastrophe that leveled over two square miles of Halifax.
Pulling this political, social, and human history together involved much research. Presenting it in such a way that general-interest readers with little background in World War I events or Canadian/American relationships will find it thoroughly engrossing requires a solid attention to drama and detail - and John U. Bacon provides just the right touch for his own lasting impact on the topic.
Truevine
Beth Macy
Back Bay Books
9780316337526 $17.99
www.littlebrown.com
Truevine: Two Brothers, A Kidnapping, and a Mother's Quest: A True Story of the Jim Crow South is a powerful historical story of greed, racism, and the impact of entwined political forces and special interest on one family.
The story begins in 1899, when children George and Willie Muse were lured from their family's sharecropping farm by a white man. They were born albino to a black family in the Jim Crow era, and were stolen from their home and placed into a circus.
The Muse's family struggles blends with overall stories of African-American challenges during this and eras to come in a story that came to light when reporter Beth Macy stumbled onto a close-held family secret and sought to right racial wrongs by publishing it.
The result should be in any collection strong in Afro-American history, civil rights, and American historical sagas.
WSU
Press
www.wsupress.wsu.edu
Jim Compton's Spirit in the Rock: The Fierce Battle for Modoc Homelands (9780874223507, $27.95) features photos by Bill Stafford which pair well with broadcast journalist Jim Compton's story of the 1873 Modoc War, one of the most expensive Indian battles in American history and the only one in which a general was killed.
This is no singular coverage, but examines events from a range of perspectives, from Modoc warriors and Calvary officer and soldier experiences to the peace efforts which led to the fatal shooting of Canby by a Modoc leader; an event which ended the war.
More specifically, Jim Compton's attention to analyzing the underlying causes of the conflict makes for a powerful survey that adds new dimensions to its history, making Spirit in the Rock a particularly notable addition to college-level American Indian holdings seeking material suitable for classroom discussion and debate.
Lauren Danner's Crown Jewel Wilderness: Creating North Cascades National Park (9780874223521, $29.95) comes from a Jersey girl who used the North Cascades National Park as a case study for her research about environmental values and the park's history.
Her
story of the creation of the park comes on the eve of its fiftieth
anniversary
in 2018 and provides an authoritative account of social, political, and
environmental forces involved in the making of the park, the
environmental
movement that fostered parks around the country, and the activism
surrounding
park creation and management in general and the North Cascades in
particular.
While this is an obvious recommendation for Washington history collections, any library strong in national parks history will find it a powerful addition.
Audiobooks
Highbridge
Audio
www.highbridgeaudio.com
Six new audio books are top, recommended picks for any collection strong in audio listening.
Joyce Maynard's The Best of Us (9781681689760, $39.99) is narrated by Maynard and tells of a partnership by two individuals who were "done with marriage" and committed to their independence.
Just after they'd been married a year, her husband was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, and Maynard really began to discover what partnership was all about.
The Best of Us is riveting, revealing, and a joy to listen to. Any memoir reader (especially those already familiar with Joyce Maynard) will consider it a thoroughly engrossing, revealing story.
Michael Sims' Frankenstein Dreams: A Connoisseur's Collection of Victorian Science Fiction (9781681687933, $34.99) is narrated by Tim Campbell, who lends a vivid and evocative voice to a collection of some of the finest sci-fi works by such notable names as H.G. Wells, Jules Verne, and others not usually associated with science fiction, such as Rudyard Kipling and Thomas Hardy.
Victorian authors imagined worlds shaped by technology and spiced by human conundrums surrounding it, and Frankenstein Dreams nicely captures their scenarios and dilemmas with stories that add the impact of human response.
The diversity of this collection and its authors, tied together only by their Victorian roots, cannot be understated. Listeners are in for a real treat.
Cory Taylor's Dying (9781681686554, $24.99) is read by Larissa Gallagher, who lends a smooth and compelling voice to this story of sixty-year-old author Cory Taylor, who is dying of brain cancer.
As her body weakens in its inevitable path, Cory relates the most intimate details, written over a few weeks' time, of her demise in a last effort that will captivate any listener.
Jonathan and Drew Scott's It Takes Two: Our Story (9781681689548, $34.99) is narrated by the authors and tells of the brothers' childhood and rise to fame. The twins began their first business at age seven, became successful models and actors, purchased their first house at age eighteen, and entered the entertainment industry with many assets than their youth.
This blend of a hilarious examination of their lives and pointed discussions of their success and achievements will leave listeners not only laughing, but thinking; and affords the rare opportunity to combine financial with entertainment savvy.
Garrison Keillor's Live from the Hollywood Bowl (9781681687407, $24.99) provides a Prairie Home Companion collection documenting the complete farewell performance of Keillor, and blends music, Broadway classics, and more in a lively production of the last broadcast from the iconic American entertainer.
This cd features encores not included in the original broadcast, making it a special recommendation for any Lake Woebegon fan looking for a keepsake edition of this last performance.
Tracy K. Smith's Life on Mars: Poems (9781681868978, $18.99) is read by the author, comes from the winner of the 2012 Pulitzer Prize, and gathers pieces that depict a surreal, sci-fi futuristic world and its impact on human existence.
Poems are varied and powerful discussions of loss, hardship, and survival and offer powerful messages about mankind's future.
All are powerful audio picks highly recommended for individual listening and library lending alike.
New Age
Impossible
Truths
Erich von Däniken
Watkins
9781786780836
$24.95
www.watkinspublishing.com
Impossible Truths: Amazing Evidence of Extraterrestrial Contact packs in some 200 photos of visual evidence to accompany previously unpublished discussions by experts and new research by von Däniken as he explores and exposes evidence in artworks and sacred texts of ancient cultures that point to early alien contact.
Erich von Däniken is known around the world for his theories about such influences, and many of his books have been translated into other languages; but this latest offers new research and new eyewitness accounts along with an unusual visual support of the evidence.
Prior von Däniken readers, in particular, will welcome this ongoing support for his theories and its additional evidence of long-standing extraterrestrial involvement in human affairs.
Red
Wheel Weiser/Conari
www.redwheelweiser.com
Three powerful new titles are highly recommended reads for new age collections, offering discussions of magic, psychic development, and a personal journey made by a traditional physician who became an alternative healer. They are highly recommended picks for new age libraries.
Sara Bamford Seidlmann's Swimming with Elephants: My Unexpected Pilgrimage from Physician to Healer (9781537247016, $18.95) tells how the author's three-month sabbatical resulted in a career change from physician to shamanic healer.
There's a big difference between not just the activities but the medical, spiritual and philosophical perspectives of traditional Western medicine versus Eastern and mystical healing. Seidlmann bridged this gap and brings readers along for the ride in a blend of travelogue, memoir, and personal revelation about life's changes and medical perception's influences on health and disease.
Ivo Dominguez Jr.'s Keys to Perception: A Practical Guide to Psychic Development (9781378636204, $18.95) gathers proven and tested methods and rituals to help readers enhance their perception of and experience with the metaphysical world and its altered realities.
These techniques for clarifying and quickening perception makes for a powerful review of how psychic abilities are encouraged and fostered, covering various methods from chants and working with crystals to using herbs and potions in rituals. Keys to Perception will provide those new to new age readings, especially, with a solid set of approaches for fostering psychic development.
Old Style Conjure: Hoodoo, Rootwork & Folk Magic by Starr Casas (9781578636228, $16.95) explores magical conjure and South American folk magic's with its long influence in the Americas, and is recommended for new age readers who would understand how to use Conjure techniques for prosperity, spiritual growth, and achieving physical and psychic goals.
The author's own rituals and spells are provided in formulas for wisdom and understanding, creating an original, unique set of tools that new age practitioners will find satisfyingly specific.
Scintillating Science Fiction and Fantasy
The
Rift Frequency The
Rift Frequency is the second book
in
the Rift Uprising trilogy and presents a situation where Ryn traverses
different alternate Earths to find both her own past and her ideal
future. As
a teen soldier, Ryn inadvertently begins an uprising when she falls in
love
with Ezra and becomes a rebel. When he becomes immersed in a battle and
is
pushed into an alternate world, taking with him a laptop that holds all
the
answers Ryn has been seeking, it's up to her to locate him despite the
fact
that her search involves traveling with one who pushed Ezra into the
Rift in
the first place. A
riveting saga of time travel makes for a story that is compelling and
hard to
put down, blending military with political action and insights all
cemented by
Ryn's literal struggle to find herself. Sci-fi fans are in for a treat
- even
newcomers unfamiliar with the first book in the series.
Amy S. Foster
Harper Voyageur
9780062443182
$24.99
www.harpercollins.com
The
Salt Line What
happens when, in the near future, the U.S. has been divided into zones
ringed
by scorched earth that protect citizens from a plague? Those inside the
zones
live safe lives, while those outside are flawed survivors. When
a group of adventure seekers from within the zone crosses the line,
they
discover not just deadly disease, but a community of survivors who
equally
value the world they have preserved in the face of disaster. Unlike
most dystopian stories, The
Salt Line
holds powerful messages that follow not only the differences between
the
wealthy and those living outside those circles, but a host of
characters who
each discover their own purposes and futures and create new strategies
and
manifestos for change. Add
an evocative, poetic voice to such explorations for a story which is
thought-provoking, compelling, and hard to put down.
Holly Goddard Jones
Putnam
9780735214316
$26.00
www.putnam.com
Political Matters
The
Dangerous Case of Donald Trump
Bandy Lee, MD, M.Dibv.
Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martins Press
9781250179456
$27.99
www.thomasdunnebooks.com
The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump: 27 Psychiatrists and Mental Health Experts Assess a President breaks with traditional reticence in the health and psychiatric communities to comment on Presidential actions, arguing that the civil and ethical duties of these 27 mental health experts leads them to come forth with unusually candid assessments that circumvents professional confidence for the sake of public protection.
These experts all assess Trump's psychological state of mind and find him potentially dangerous, writing about everything from his hedonism to his narcissistic personality and delusions.
The result is an eye-opening, sobering assessment that should be in the hands not just of Trump supporters or detractors; but anyone who would consider the mental health of political leaders.
Rowman
& Littlefield
www.rowman.com
Two books about the Trump presidency offer viewpoints on the radical nature of his election and presence in office, and are recommended for college-level readers in political science courses dedicated to Presidential history in general and Trump in particular.
Larry J. Sabto, Kyle Kondik and Geoffrey Skelly edit Trumped: The 2016 Election That Broke All the Rules (9781442279391, $27.00), an investigation that is as much about the written and unspoken rules surrounding Presidential politics and elections as it is about Trump's processes, in particular.
As chapters cover Trump's electoral victory and specific strategies, they consider traditional approaches to gaining and running the Presidency, rules that are being broken right and left, and their lasting impacts upon America's election and governance process.
More specific to this process is Steven E. Schier and Todd E. Eberly's The Trump Presidency: Outsider in the Oval Office (9781538105740, $28.00), a broader discussion of Trump's transition to power and his changing relationships with media, Congress, and other political entities as he makes new headway in domestic and international affairs and repositions the U.S. both at home and abroad.
These
two books provide important information on America's democratic and
electoral
processes and will fuel many a classroom debate.
The
Trump Leaks
The Onion
HarperDesign
9780062834263 $35.00
www.harpercollins.com
The Trump Leaks: The Onion Exposes the Top Secret Memos, Emails, and Doodles That Could take Down a President provides a four-color book from the satire publication which tackles Trump documents, myths, and memos, offering a fun and powerful assessment of items "leaked" from the White House.
From cubist representations of the President during a meal to Stephen Bannon's daily schedule or James B. Cooney's sketches, The Trump Leaks takes real facts and gives them an added dimension of irony and satirical inspection.
The visual format adds an extra feel of disrespectful fun to a survey that will join other political examinations of the Trump era with more than a light eye to its strange statements and ironic attitudes.
We
Were Going to Change the World
Stacy Russo
Santa Monica Press
9781595800923
$16.95
www.santamonicapress.com
We Were Going to Change the World: Interviews with Women from the 1970s & 1980s Southern California Punk Rock Scene provides a focus unique both for its narrowed attention to Southern California punk rock history and for documenting the many women active in that scene during this time.
Interviews with musicians, fans and photographers offer a specific focus on why these women were drawn to the punk rock scene, outlining not only their lives, experiences, and expectations of music and society during those times, but the lasting impact of growing up and participating in the punk rock scene in Southern California.
Adding interviews with fans, journalists, and photographers also involved in that era adds an extra dimension to Stacy Russo's oral history in lively investigation of what punk rock represents to different women, how it changed their lives, and what they ultimately learned from punk and hard rock music alike.
No modern music history holding or collection strong in women's issues should be without this vivacious chronicle.
Science, Nature & Technology
The
Book of Caterpillars The
Book of Caterpillars: A Life-Size Guide to Six Hundred
Species From Around the World is
not a casual leisure survey
of caterpillars, but a in-depth study packing over six hundred pages
with over
2,400 color plates and discussions of species from around the
world. Lovely
images are accompanied by two-tone engravings of caterpillar adults, a
population distribution map, and details about their natural history
and
conservation. Many
caterpillar books are either part of larger butterfly identification
discussions and guides or are geared to novices and younger readers;
but The Book
of Caterpillars's in-depth and
scientifically accurate examination makes for a top pick for
college-level
collections strong in entomology.
David G. James
University of Chicago Press
9780226287362
$55.00
www.press.uchicago.edu
New
Views New
Views: The World Mapped Like Never Before: 50 Maps Of
Our Physical, Cultural And Political World is
recommend
for world history and cartography collections alike, and packs in fifty
maps
that excel in charting human, animal, and social circles based on
country-specific data and new categorization systems. This
oversized presentation with its full-page color maps is supplemented by
details
on how data is brought together to form a map from databases, and how
maps help
provide visual conclusions to data to place statistics in a broader
perspective. High
school to college-level collections and beyond will find New Views
an important, different
presentation of maps and the systems that contribute to their
creation.
Alastair Bonnett
Aurum Press
9781781316399
$35.00
www.quartoknows.com
Reviewer's Choice
The
Edge of the World
Editors of Outside Magazine
Falcon
9781493020069 $26.00
www.falcon.com
Sports, photography, and outdoors collections alike will relish The Edge of the World's blend of adventure photography and nature images, which celebrates extreme adventures in some of the world's wildest places.
From climbing Alaska's 8,520-foot Citadel and a photo snapped of partners in their climbing efforts to a black and white image shot by a photographer who joined a 2010 expedition to seek out the giant Humboldt squid in Baja, Mexico, these varied images celebrate both athletes and their encounters with nature.
The insights on how extraordinary photos are shot pair with powerful images to make for an outstanding collection that will intrigue sports fans, outdoor and nature enthusiasts, and landscape photographers alike in a top recommendation that includes notes about each shot and how it was achieved.
Filmmaking
for Change
Jon Fitzgerald
Michael Wiese Productions
9781615931217 $24.95
www.mwp.com
Filmmaking for Change: Make Films That Transform the World comes from the co-founder of the Slamdance Film Festival who directed three award-winning documentaries and launched a program to link socially relevant films to causes, and provides a powerful study that film schools and students should take note of.
Filmmaking has become a powerful media tool for changing hearts and minds, but too few approaches to film production embrace the notion of how to actually translate ideas into powerful documentaries.
Filmmaking for Change achieves this goal by offering case studies of development challenges and successes, discussing marketing, social networks, and pre-production business plans and objectives, and the process of linking socially conscious ideas and approaches to basic filmmaking and marketing savvy.
The result is a 'must' for any interested in using film production for a greater good.
Pearls
Before Swine titles
Steven T. Pastis
Andrews McMeel Publishing
www.andrewsmcmeel.com
Two excellent books by illustrator Steven T. Pastis provide Pearls Before Swine comic collections that are fun compilations; especially for those who may have missed some of these colorful panels and puns in their daily papers.
I Scream, You Scream, We All Scream Because Puns Suck (9781449483807, $14.99) gathers comic panels illustrating his fascination with puns both good and bad, providing a mix of full color and black and white jokes based upon the Pearls gang.
From systems that need fixing to fast-paced technology that leaves the illustrator befuddled and his savvier drawings at the cutting edge of understanding, I Scream, You Scream, We All Scream Because Puns Suck is a hilarious, fun collection that will especially appeal to prior students of language and puns.
Suit Your Selfie (97814494783759, $9.99) provides a fifth Pearls Before Swine collection especially created for middle-grade readers: a particularly commendable focus considering that many of the Pearls characters' jokes tend to be directed to adults.
Having a kid-oriented collection means that a younger age can readily enjoy the puns, observations and hilarious ironies the Pearls animals are so famous for, creating young fans that will likely grow into adult readers of the comic strip.
Both are highly recommended for fans of comic strip humor in general and Pastis in particular.
Running
South America with My Husband and Other Animals
Katharine Lowrie
Whittles Publishing
9781849953627
$24.95
www.whittlespublishing.com
Running South America with My Husband and Other Animals tells of a husband and wife, both runners, who decided to run barefoot through the length South America together.
Their vivid explorations of other cultures, no-mans lands, zones of fire, and encounters with death and odd creatures makes for a runner's story like no other.
Where other books would log miles and chart physical endurance, Running South America is replete with colorful information about various countries in South America, from the promised land of Bolivia to the challenging new world and language of Brazil.
These descriptions offer eye-opening encounters and insights that are delightfully unexpected, as most books covering long-distance running don't begin to touch upon cultural and geographic encounters.
Add beautiful color photos throughout for a visually gorgeous, lively exploration of different nations and their peoples, all recounted in a lively 'you are there' tone that invites both running enthusiasts, travelogue readers, and general readers to imbibe in a taste of something special.
The
White City
Roma Tearne
Gallic Books
9781910709337 $14.95
www.gallicbooks.com
Dystopian novels are at their best when they hold the ability to pair a survival struggle with a familiar, near-future world in which society's evolution and individual progress is not only believable, but frighteningly close to home.
Providing this sense of immediacy requires not only a familiarity with psychological and historical precedent, but an ability to take a microcosm of experience and social insight and expand that into a powerful situation.
Such is The White City, which considers the experiences of Hera, the daughter of March Arabs who came to Britain seeking a better life. Hera is a student in London when the great freeze begins. Here she looks back on decades of living in the frozen city as a Muslim whose family is cruelly prosecuted as society itself declines.
Not only is The White City about survival; it's about human decency and the erosion of values in the face of that struggle, and it combines a story about life in a climate-changed world with that of a survivor who finds that physical challenges are not all that stymies her in a world where terrorism is rampant and people like her are suspect.
This powerful story reaches beyond the genre label of dystopian fiction to will appeal to any reader interested in a gripping tale of struggle and survival.
You
Don't Own Me
Orly Lobel
W.W. Norton
9780393254075
$27.95
www.wwnorton.com
You Don't Own Me: How Mattel v. MGA Entertainment Exposed Barbie's Dark Side details the battle between the maker of the Barbie doll and the company that created the Bratz dolls, but You Don't Own Me is actually more than a dispute about toy competition and trademarks.
Ultimately, it's a story of ideas and the ownership of creative genius as well as a saga of two warring companies involved in decades-long court battles, and presents the story of Barbie's invention and promotion as it considers issues of proprietary ideas, marketing ploys, competition, and employee rights and relationships under a corporate umbrella.
The result reads like a lively social history but is actually a powerful business story in disguise, and should be on the shelves of business and social issues collections alike.
Young Adult/Childrens
Clarion/Houghton
Mifflin Harcourt Two
fine picture books from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt provide fun reads for
kids
and parents seeking something different. Alastair
Heim's The
Great Puppy Invasion
(9780544999176, $16.99) receives excellent drawings by Kim Smith as it
tells of
a town invaded by hundreds of puppies. This
doesn't sound too bad; except that nobody in town has seen puppies
before, and
the town rules against cuteness and fun would seem in direct conflict
with the
troop of invading dogs. Can
a young boy face this threat and come up with a solution that puppies
and
townsfolk can accept? Andrea
Tsurumi's Accident!
(9780544944800, $17.99) tells what happens when armadillo Lola
accidentally
knocks a jug of juice all over her parents' best chair. Seeking
to flee the scene of her crime, Lola keeps running into other animals
with
similar disasters, and soon there's a group of creatures tackling
increasingly
hilarious, improbable dilemmas. They're
all running into each others' messes. What's a creature to do? Kids
and parents will find Accident!
Is hilarious and provides lots of fun, unexpected action throughout its
simple
story line.
www.hmhco.com
If
You Give a Man a Cookie: A Parody If
You Give a Man a Cookie: A Parody
will
best be understood with some parental assistance, as explanations of
parodies
(plus prior familiarity with Numeroff's 'If You...' picture books) will
increase appreciation and enjoyment of this fun takeoff on her
themes. If
You Give a Man a Cookie is a
woman's
commentary on her man and how a simple cookie begins a process that
illustrates
a beleaguered wife's efforts on his behalf. Brian
Ajhar provides fun drawings in a book that is quite accessible to
children; but
which will be especially fondly regarded by women who see 'adult
children' in
their spouse's behaviors.
Laura Numeroff
Andrews McMeel
9781449480172
$16.99
www.andrewsmcmeel.com
Penguin/Dial Three
books offer picture book readers and Level 2 readers many hilarious,
enjoyable
moments. Level
2 readers will welcome another Max & Ruby story by Rosemary
Wells, Max at
School (97805125157444,
$14.99). Young
rabbit Max is all set for school, where there is lots to do. The very
simple
story follows Max through a wide range of first day activities, and
youngsters
receive a fine account of not only Max's enjoyment of school, but the
many
different events that take place. Jon
Agee's Terrific
(9780735229884,
$17.99) tells of curmudgeon Eugene, who finds nothing good in anything
that
happens to him in life, even when it involves winning a cruise to
Bermuda
("I"ll probably
get a really nasty
sunburn."). But
maybe his skepticism about life is right, because when his ship sinks
and he's
stranded on an island with a parrot, there seems to be little doubt
about
future difficulties. What
isn't predictable is the surprises and lessons Eugene receives, which
leads to
some creative thinking and unexpected pleasures. Jon
Agee's Milo's
Hat Trick
(9780735229877, $17.99) tells of an incompetent magician who needs to
bag a
rabbit for his hat trick. No
rabbits can be found - however, there is a willing bear. Good
reading skills will enhance enjoyment of this fun story of a creative
magician
who finds a different approach to life.
www.penguinyoungreaders.com
Room
for Rent Room
for Rent provides American
audiences
with a classic picture book story that has been a bestseller in Israel
for
fifty years and tells of Sir Reginald Mouse, who vanishes from his
apartment,
leading his neighbors to advertise his room for rent. The
problem is: all the likely renters find something wrong with said
neighbors. The
neighbors find that it may require a special candidate with a special
attitude
to move into a building apparently filled with disparate and
challenging
personalities. Drawings
by Israeli artist Shumel Katz accompanies a gentle story that embeds
Jewish
wisdom with an overlay of social interactions and understanding that
will
appeal to Jewish and non-Jewish young readers and their
parents.
Leah Goldberg
Gefen Publishing
9789652299208 $17.95
www.gefenpublishing.com
The
Search for the Lost Prophecy The
Search for the Lost Prophecy
presents
Book Two in the Horace J. Edwards and the Time Keepers series and shows
how
Horace continues to learn more about his place in his grandfather's
secret
order, The Time Keepers. When
Horace and his friends locate another time travel opportunity, they're
sent to
1920s Detroit to the secret order's headquarters; there to face the
impossible
job of keeping a sacred stone safe. The
thing that's most in their favor is that his youth - and that's the
same thing
that works against him in this involving blend of history and adventure
for
ages 9 and older.
William Meyer
Sleeping Bear Press
9781585369829
$16.99
www.sleepingbearpress.com
Simon
and Schuster Ashley
Wolff's Where
Oh Where, is Baby Bear?
requires good reading skills or parental assistance but rewards such
efforts
with its vivid story of a curious Baby Bear who wants to wander away
from his
mother whenever they go out foraging for food. His
inquisitive ways lead to a hide-and-seek adventure as a frustrated
mother is
continually challenged to locate her wandering son. Kids
who enjoy find-the-animal picture books will take special pleasure in
locating
Baby Bear themselves, whose character is embedded into each
panel. Avi's
The Player King
(9781481437684,
$16.99) tells of a 15th century boy who moves from gutter to garden
when he's
chosen to become the King of England. Based
on a true story from Medieval England, this tale follows the steps of a
penniless kitchen worker, Lambert, who is kidnapped into a new role
based on
his hidden heritage. Young
adults will find The
Player King
is an inviting, warm read about a boy suddenly displaced into a world
he's ill
suited for.
www.simonandschuster.com/kids